I have heard a lot of static
concerning African Americans and their supposed disregard for
education. “Our
black kids look down on education” say many of the black pundits, “they
tease the black kids who are doing well school and say they are
acting white.” I’ve heard this repeated over and over again by
African-American personalities and celebrities (none of which,
by the way, have any extensive, classroom teaching experience).
Let me also add, that in all my years as an educator and youth
program specialist, I have never heard any student equating
scholastic achievement with whiteness.Nevertheless, this
assertion is usually made without challenge, rebuttal or explanation.
This is yet another sign of the reactionary times that we now
live in, here in America – with a pit bull-like tenacity we lock
on to what is being said without examining why it’s
being said. I, in the course of this writing, will endeavor
to unmask this widely-held misconception.

I would like to outline, briefly, my
experience in education and youth development:

1. I have taught high school social
studies, history, sociology and special needs.

2. I have taught
college sociology, philosophy and history.

3. I have taught graduate
courses in education (my students were k-12 teachers & guidance
counselors – in other words I’ve taught teachers).

4. I
have served on the Board of Directors of a teachers’ union.

5. I create and develop educational
curriculum and programs.

6. I have worked
for a number of years, in fields of education and social youth
development programs.

I’m not flaunting or
bragging about my qualifications, but I am merely pointing
out that I do have
a basis (rooted in experience) for forming my views on this
particular subject. There are four areas that I will be focusing
on: 1. Popular Culture, 2. Curriculum, 3. Honors/Advance Placement
classes and 4. Ethnicity of Teachers.

Popular Culture

I know there are some who may question
the place popular culture has in this dialogue concerning education.
However, popular culture does have an impact on our perceptions;
and perceptions have been front and center in these erroneous
beliefs regarding African Americans and education. Nerds, geeks,
brainiacs, eggheads etc.; these words have come to define the
socially-challenged, yet academically-gifted populations in
our schools. Taped glasses, high-water pants, pocket-protectors,
socially-inept and high IQs; these are just a few of the characteristics
that symbolize the stereotypical (or traditional) nerd or geek.

To be viewed as a nerd
or geek meant (and still means in some circles) certain social
death to the
vast majority of high school students. Students by and large
tried to distance themselves from any behavior (i.e. overachieving
academically) that would cause them to be tagged with the nerd
or geek label – they also distanced themselves from those who
had already been labeled as such. The vast majority of teen
movies in the 1980’s had three major themes:

1. The ridiculing
of social misfits (nerds, geeks etc.),

2. The transformation
of the socially-inept into acceptably cool characters (i.e. Can’t
Buy Me Love, Just One of the Guys, Heavenly Kid), and

3. Movies such as Revenge of the Nerds where the nerds
and geeks triumph over their social oppressors.

Somehow many
African Americans (usually the affluent, disconnected ones)
have swallowed this misconception about African-American
youth being anti-intellectual and anti-education. This ideology
concerning
nerds and geeks did not originate in the African-American
community, but in predominantly white, middle-class, suburban
communities.
In our schools, being smart just doesn’t matter much. Kids
don’t admire it or despise it. All other things being equal,
they would prefer to be on the smart side of average rather
than the dumb side, but intelligence counts for far less
than, say, physical appearance, charisma, or athletic ability.
Think
about it, high school athletes get more press and recognition
than those on the debate teams. As a matter of fact, how
many academic competitions do we have in our public schools?
It
seems like sheer hypocrisy, to me, for anyone to suggest
that African Americans place less value on education than
the rest
of the population.

Curriculum

Let’s say for a moment, that I actually
bought into this misconception about African-American youths’ aversion
to education; when the curriculum is viewed from our social
studies, history and English classes across the country; it’s
easy to see how education and “whiteness” becomes inseparable.
No, I do not believe that education in and of itself should
be viewed as white, but I am saying that I can understand why
it may be viewed that way by some.

For example, most of
the history classes (World & U.S.) focus mostly on people
of European descent. Curriculum in our public schools continues
to be either opposed
to or indifferent about a more multi-cultural emphasis. Only
a
handful of our public school students know more than the customary
African-American figures (Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman etc.) displayed in our
curriculum. The study of world history usually begins with
the Roman Empire (untouched is the study of the ancient Egyptian,
Nubian or Ethiopian civilizations) and ends with modern Europe.
Secondary U.S. History curriculum similarly omits any significant
study of the institution of slavery or Reconstruction and their
role in this country's history. These omissions become even
more glaring when classes such as African-American studies
are not required courses. English Literature courses may devote
a few weeks a year (usually around February) to authors such
as Langston Hughes, Alice Walker, James Baldwin or Toni Morrison;
hardly enough time for the average student to become familiar
with African-American history or culture.

Honors and Advanced Placement Classes

According to Harvard’s Civil
Rights Project, African-American
students are only half as likely as whites to be placed
in Honors or AP English or math classes, and 2.4 times
more likely than whites to be placed in remedial classes.
Even when African American demonstrate equal ability with
their white counterparts, they are less likely to be placed
in accelerated classes. Students who take Advanced Placement
(AP) courses in high school are eligible to take the corresponding
AP examination and may earn college credit for scores above
a minimum threshold. The U.S. Department of Education’s
National Center for Education Statistics found that the
number of African-American students taking the AP examinations
increased from 9
to 53 per 1,000 12th graders between 1984 and 2000.
However, the number of African-American students who took
AP examinations in 2000 was still considerably lower than
Whites (180 per 1,000). This is due, in part, to the fact
that on average, schools serving mostly black and Latino
students offer only a third as many AP and honors courses
as schools serving mostly whites. Another little discussed
actuality is that quite a few African Americans are inconspicuously
steered away from Honors and AP classes and into basic
and general courses. As a result, the classes that represent
our best and brightest minds become decidedly white.

Ethnicity of Teachers

Without debating the
reasons for these realities, let’s take a look at the ethnic makeup of the faculties
of our educational institutions. Data compiled by the National
Center for Education Statistics (2003), showed that approximately
3 million of the nation’s estimated 3.5 million k-12 teachers
(public and private) are white – that translates to about 85%.
Post-secondary education is slightly different; 75% (2,148,845
of a total 2,883,175) of America’s college and university educators
is white. A 2002 Independent Postsecondary Education Data System’s
report on the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities
further emphasizes these discrepancies. In collecting data
from the 105 CCCU member colleges and universities, they found
that there were only sixty-two African-American male faculty
members – and of these sixty-two, 37 were part-timers. Only
7 African-American males held Executive, Administrative or
Managerial positions. As I stated before, we don’t have to
debate the reasons why these discrepancies exist; but the fact
of the matter is they do exist.

As we step outside of
the tangible statistics of our country’s teaching population; let us take
a look at intangible aspects of teaching. When an educator
stands before a classroom and teaches, they are not just transmitting
facts, figures and data about English, math, history etc. They
are also conveying their worldview, ideas and values – either
consciously or unconsciously (as a teacher I understand this
all too well). Too many times people like doctors, policeman
and teachers are treated as if they are separate from (or above)
our society, rather than reflections of it. The high expectations
we place upon these individuals, somehow causes us to lose
sight of their humanity. The same ideas and prejudices
that Joe and Jane Q. Public struggle with, are the same ones
our teachers struggle with as well. Unspoken and unconscious
prejudices are no less real than vocal or conscious ones. Our
thoughts carry attitudes; our attitudes carry vibes; and once
that undeclared, discriminatory vibe is felt by that student
of color, it can create very real barriers to their desire
to learn and that teacher’s ability to teach them.

In light of the information
found in these four categories, can you at least see why an
African-American
student might view education (even if you don’t agree with
the assertion) as being white? Since the vast majority of whites
in this country have never had to cope with these realities,
they either doubt their existence or are totally ignorant of
them altogether.

The issue of African
American performance in education received increased national
attention after the
publication of noted anthropologist John Ogbu’s book Black
American Students in an Affluent Suburb. Middle-class and
affluent African-American parents in Shaker Heights, Ohio,
wanted to know why their children lagged so far behind their
white classmates in what is considered the best school district
in the state. Clearly, the achievement gap wasn't the function
of poverty or an inferior education, reasons often put forth
to explain the gap between black and white students across
the country. The Shaker Heights parents, with funding and support
from the school system, called in UC Berkeley anthropologist
John Ogbu, a noted figure in the field of minority education,
to find the answer. What Ogbu found in Shaker Heights mirrored
what he has found in every country he has studied in his 30
years of research.

The under-achieving minorities
in these countries, including blacks in the United States,
all
had one factor in common: They are what Ogbu calls “involuntary
minorities.”

Involuntary minorities are those who
did not immigrate to a country by choice. They became minorities
through enslavement, colonization or conquest, a status that
continues to shape how they are treated by the dominant group
and how they perceive and respond to that treatment. Involuntary
minorities developed their identity in opposition to the majority
group that had oppressed them. As a result, they are often
suspicious of societal institutions run by the dominant group,
including the schools, believing that the curriculum threatens
and denigrates their heritage.

Voluntary minorities, on the other
hand, are those who have chosen to immigrate in hopes of a
better future. These minorities see education as a path to
success in their new country. They are willing to embrace the
new language and new ways, no matter how dissimilar to their
own, in order to reap the benefits of an American education.

Ogbu points to the Buraku people of
Japan as a comparison. They are ethnically identical to other
Japanese. During Japan's feudal ages, the emperor designated
the Buraku to be the laborers, the lowest class. They were
freed from this designation in 1871; a few years after American
blacks were freed from slavery.

To this day, the Buraku lag behind
their Japanese counterparts in academic achievement. Yet when
they immigrate to other countries, where they are seen simply
as Japanese and not Buraku, the gap gradually disappears. Their
school achievement rises.

Similarly, third-generation
descendants of Koreans who had been forced into labor in Japan
in the last
century are among the poorest-performing students in Japan.
But Koreans who immigrated to China in search of a better life
are the highest-achieving minority group in China. Although
Ogbu’s studies offer some compelling reasons for the gap between
African-Americans and whites in education, he also cautioned
that we should not allow our righteous zeal to fight discrimination
(and to break down barriers in education and in the opportunity
structure), to cause us to ignore the personal behavior and
attitudes that are conducive to academic success.

In this writing I do not propose any excuses, but rather explanations.
I suppose that is my chief criticism of the black pundits and
personalities who disseminate this fallacious notion of African-American
students’ disregard of education. They are so afraid that they
will be viewed as excusing these educational issues and
concerns, that they haven’t bothered trying to rightly explain them
either. This too, goes to the heart of how we have failed many
of our children of color. We have appropriately expended a great
amount of time and effort trying to instill in them a respect
for education, but we have failed at the equally important task
of making sure that the powers-that-be in education values and
respects them.

Dr. Edward Rhymes, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, is
a consultant in the areas racism, equity & diversity, education
and adolescent development. He is also a Visiting Asst. Professor
at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Be sure to check
out the Rhymes Reasons page on his website, http://mysite.verizon.net/vze48hqr/rhymesworld